It’s easy to get confused between stress and burning out. But it’s important to remember that while stress is a normal occurrence in daily life, and is even important up till a limit – burnout isn’t normal. Stress leads to burnout, along with other factors like lethargy, depression and cynicism; but it’s possible to experience stress without it developing into burnout.
Burnout occurs as a result of excessive stress, coupled with a cycle of negative emotions and the body’s lack of engagement and withdrawal. It is a sort of a defence of the body when it’s physically and mentally exhausted by putting in effort towards work or performance without getting any restoration time. This leads to a decline in performance as well as indifference in performing tasks that you enjoyed doing previously.